Jane Austen July 2025 discussion

Jane Austen July is alas over. How did all your months go? Any highlights?

highlights were Northanger Abbey, rereading pride and prejudice, and Emma 2020 adaptation.

I was very surprised by all I was able to accomplish this month! Seven novels completed, two non-fiction started (hope to complete in August), and three screen adaptations. My favorites were the two P&P adaptations - Unequal Affections and Fair Stands the Wind. Overall, it was a great month with Jane!

I completed all but one of the challenges. The highlights for me were both the 1990's Sense and Sensibility starring Alan Rickman and the 2008 Sense and Sensibility, along with I Have Found It, and the most wonderful surprise of all The Year In Between. The Three Colonels was so bad that it was funny. Thank you for once again hosting this Katie. Alas, it is over for this year, but I look forward to reading with you all again next year.

Thank you for offering this group, my new summertime ritual! Alas, this year I was unable to reach my goal—fell short on the nonfiction—because this month was way too packed with other reading commitments. Next year I’ll try to clear the decks for July so I can indulge an Austen orgy.

I didn't do as well as I'd hoped. I read Pride & Prejudice, Lady Susan, and am 20 pages away from finishing Northanger Abbey. I read part of Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley and will finish it in August. I watched Austenland (cute), Love and Friendship and the very disappointing Persuasion on Netflix. It was a busy month. I enjoyed reading the comments in the group throughout the month and will be looking forward to next July. Thank you to the hosts!

I fell short a bit.

1. Read one of Jane Austen’s six novels The Annotated Persuasion
2. Read something by Jane Austen that is not one of her main six novels Northanger Abbey, Lady Susan, The Watsons, Sanditon (Lady Susan)
3. Read a non-fiction work about Jane Austen or her time
Reading Austen in America
4. Read a retelling of a Jane Austen book OR a work of historical fiction set in Jane Austen’s time
Conviction: A Sequel to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice and
Sylvester
5. Read a book by a contemporary of Jane Austen
6. Watch a direct screen adaptation of a Jane Austen book
7. Watch a modern screen adaptation of a Jane Austen book

watching Persuasion which is NOT a direct adaptation nor a modern adaptation. It's a hybrid. Modern language, modern manners, period costumes. BAD acting.

I completed:
1. Mansfield Park
2. 1/2 Lady Susan
3. Tea with Jane Austen and Brave Jane Austen
4. 1/2 A Tale of Two Cities
5. Poetry by W. Wordsworth and others
6. Mansfield Park
7. Watched Becoming Jane and Austenland and I know they are not retellings but I loved them both.

My first time participating, it really spurred me on to read a lot more than usual this month!
Finished Cecelia by Frances Burney (loved it, although it’s very lengthy)
Finished Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley (excellent)
Read Lady Susan (as part of readalong)
Started Persuasion
Read The Gentleman's Daughter by Amanda Vickery (very detailed)
Read The Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton by Antonia Fraser (very interesting, found in the library)
Read Miss Austen by Gill Hornby (excellent, library ebook)
Listened to Charlotte by Helen Moffat (excellent, although slightly marred by 2 explicit sexual passages, library audiobook)
Listened to The Jane Austen Diet by Bryan Kozlowski (fun idea, library audiobook)
Listened to 17 episodes of The Thing About Austen podcast (informative and witty)
Watched Love and Friendship (Lady Susan) adaptation
Watched Persuasion 1995 adaptation
Thanks to the organisers and participants. Really enjoyed being a part of this event and finding some great new JA inspired reads 😎

Read Persuasion 6 months ago, my first Jane Austen. Was a bit interested then to notice Jane Austen July. Happily made my way through Emma, Northanger Abbey and Pride and Prejudice. Wonderful! Enjoyed Emma most of all.

Re-read Persuasion and watched 2 movie versions of it, read Sanditon, Lady Susan and The Watsons for the first time. Read a memoir by Ruth Wilson called The Jane Austen Remedy and finally got to Longbourn which has been on my TBR for a couple of years!

I completed all challenges:
1. Pride and Prejudice
Persuasion (my two favourite Jane Austen novels)
2. Lady Susan
3. What Matters in Jane Austen by John Mullan (very interesting)
4. Longbourn by Jo Baker (I loved it, it was my highlight!)
5. The Absentee by Maria Edgeworth ( I didn't like it. The story
was not bad and I could appreciate the social criticism,
but I didn't like the writing style and the characters.
And I struggled with the massive anti-Semitism.)
6. Pride and Prejudice 1980 (I love this adaptation! When I
think of Elizabeth Bennet, I always see Elizabeth Garvie before
my eyes, not Jennifer Ehle nor Keira Knightley
Persuasion 2022 ( terrible!!!)
7. Modern Persuasion 2020 (I like this adaptation. They did by all means
a much better job of the characters and the love story
than Persuasion 2022!)

Good for you Tom!
Gaby I agree Modern Persuasion at least acknowldged that it was paying tribute to the novel but was updated. The current version is modern too but in period costumes and doesn't make sense. It's BASED ON Persuasion according to the credits. It should say inspired by but not an adaptation of...

I didn’t meet all the challenges but had a lot of fun. I listened to Lady Susan. I read Jane Austen, The Secret Radical by Helena Kelly, which was an excellent examination of the many references in Jane Austen’s novels that modern readers miss. Numerous variations were read and that was a lot of fun. I read about, and some poetry by, Phillis Wheatley. I watched Fire Island, a modern, queer P&P and have two season of Sanditon still to watch (just got them off hold from my library yesterday). So no big novels, I just wasn’t in the mood, but I enjoyed Jane Austen July.

I read two novels, Pride and Prejudice with the group and Northanger Abbey at the end of the month. In addition, I read some Woodworth poetry and some nonfiction. I really enjoyed Just Jane by Nancy Moser. I have so much more to read next year. What I really loved is that I got so much more out of P&P this time because I read it closely with the group. Aloha.

I enjoyed JA July immensely, as always. I was able to finish all the prompts.

1. re-read 'Pride and Prejudice' (as mazing as ever)

2. 'The History of England' (short and witty, but forgettable) & re-read 'Lady Susan' (didn't plan to read it this time, but I couldn't resist - Lady Susan is such a delightfully awful person)

3. 'Elegant Etiquette in the 19th Century' by Mallory James (it was great to read this alongside P&P - I finally understand why Mr Collins introducing himself first to Mr Darcy is socially unacceptable and many more things I didn't know about the social etiquette of the time) and
'Fashion in the Time of Jane Austen' by Sarah Jane Downing (interesting to see how fashion changed over the years, but nothing more to it)

4. 'The Jane Austen Project' by Kathleen A. Flynn (didn't expect to enjoy it as much - interesting combination of JA and time travel)

5. 'Zofloya, or the Moor' by Charlotte Dacre (gothic novel, very much in the vein of Matthew Lewis' 'The Monk', interesting to see a woman write about female desire and sexuality at that time period, but nothing more than that) and
'A Vindication of the Rights of Woman' by Mary Wollstonecraft (her writing style occasionally bored me, I respect this book and it's author more than I like it)

6. 'Persuasion' 2022 (what a trainwreck!) and rewatched 'Love & Friendship', which I think is a good adaptation)

7. 'Austenland' (not my cup of tea, unfortunately, though I see many people like it; still better than the new Persusasion)

P&P re-read is always the highlight of the month, but in terms of new reads I'd say I enjoyed 'The JA Project' for fiction and 'Elegant Etiquette' for nonfiction the most.

This JAJ, I feel that I grew closer to JA the person and JA the author. Now I see how much her work exposes societal and human weaknesses and flaws and dramatizes better ways for people to judge, behave, and interact. Thank you, Katie, Marissa, and Claudia!

I met all the challenges:
1. Sense and Sensibility by JA edited by John Mullan (excellent, the Elinor-Marianne dynamic is frighteningly like the teenage relationship between my drama-queen sister and me)
2. Lady Susan by JA Readalong (wickedly witty) and 7 pieces of JA juvenilia: “Love and Friendship,” “An Unfinished Novel in Letters: Lesley Castle,” “The History of England,” “Collection of [fictional] Letters,” “The Beautiful Cassandra,” “Amelia Webster,” and “The Three Sisters” (all satiric good fun)
3. Jane Austen, Her Life and Letters, A Family Record by William and Richard Arthur Austen-Leigh (dense but adds to and contextualizes the letters and memoir), The Life and Works of Jane Austen by Devoney Looser lectures and guidebook (filled with information and insight into JA, her life, and works), and 4 essays: “On Sense and Sensibility” by Watt (fantastic), “From ‘Why We Read JA’” by Trilling (arrogant), “Jane Austen’s Juvenilia” by Chesterton (enjoyable), and “Realism: Jane Austen” by Burton (also arrogant)
4. Miss Austen: A Novel of the Austen Sisters by Gill Hornby (dissonant and somber)
5. Belinda by Maria Edgeworth (my first Edgeworth; I will read more)
6. Sense and Sensibility both the 1995 and 2008 adaptations (each enjoyable in different ways)
7. Love and Friendship (fun) and Persuasion 2022 (a hot mess)

Lorri wrote: "1. Sense and Sensibility by JA edited by John Mullan (excellent, the Elinor-Marianne dynamic is frighteningly like the teenage relationship between my drama-queen sister and me)."

You too? My sister is Mary Musgrove from Persuasion complete with two bratty, crazy kids.

QNPoohBear wrote: "Lorri wrote: "1. Sense and Sensibility by JA edited by John Mullan (excellent, the Elinor-Marianne dynamic is frighteningly like the teenage relationship between my drama-queen sister and me)."

Yo..."

Oh, the horror!

1. Read one of Jane Austen’s six novels - Sense and Sensibility
2. Read something by Jane Austen that is not one of her main six novels Love and Friendship and Other Youthful Writings & The Letters of Jane Austen
3. Read a non-fiction work about Jane Austen or her time - I just got my request for The Real Jane Austen: A Life in Small Things so I wasn't able to finish it in July
4. Read a retelling of a Jane Austen book OR a work of historical fiction set in Jane Austen’s time - did not do
5. Read a book by a contemporary of Jane Austen The Mysteries of Udolpho - it was a struggle, this took a lot of my time to get through.
6. Watch a direct screen adaptation of a Jane Austen book - Love and Friendship
7. Watch a modern screen adaptation of a Jane Austen book - Bride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies & From Prada to Nada.

As predicted, I didn't complete the challenge, but enjoyed the month it very much :) I re-read Pride and Prejudice and rewatched all the adaptations I could think of, plus as new reads Longbourn (a real highlight!) and Austenland. The best discovery for me though was a YouTube playlist with clips from all (or at least most) adaptations of P&P, comparing the different versions directly was very interesting. (Now I have to watch the dutch adaptation, it seemed to me that the 2005 film took inspiration from it for the tone of some scenes.)

Check out the fabulous 1/2 hour documentary called ‘ Inside Jane Austen's House With Lucy Worsley’ on the History Hit YouTube channel.

Liz wrote: "Check out the fabulous 1/2 hour documentary called ‘ Inside Jane Austen's House With Lucy Worsley’ on the History Hit YouTube channel."

It's also called "Jane Austen: Behind Closed Doors" and can be found on PBS or the PBS passport app in the United States and YouTube. I also like "The Many Lovers of Jane Austen" with Amanda Vickery.

I read Sense and Sensibility for the first time!

I hope you enjoyed it! Sense and Sensibility has grown on me over the years; I particularly like how our understanding of Mrs. Jennings evolves.

Thank you for this annual treat which I look forward to from Spring.
But a poor show this year because its a working Summer unfortunately.
1. PP - I rushed through unable to put it down as usual - and cheated myself of the chance to savour it, which I had meant to do after the joyous experience of the Emma slow reading a previous year. C’est la vie.
2. X
3. Jane Austen’s Geographies
by Robert Clark (2018)
I enjoyed all the historical geographic details that added so much to the contextual understanding which contemporary readers of JA would have also had.
Recommended - except for the bit that has Willoughby planning to go to Gretna Green to marry Lydia Bennet ... 😳🤷🏻‍♀️
4a. Fitzwilliam Darcy Gentleman. Re-Read. Enjoyed it - though not as much as the last time (occupational hazard of fan fiction which never have the JA depth), yet got more from Volume 2 than I did last time. So a win.
4b. PP in German (unfinished)
5. X
6. P&P 1980 loved it more than 1995.
S&S 1971 loved it.
7. X

It was great. I didn't do the screen adaptation categories, but the other ones went excellently.
I read Mansfield Park as one of JA'd major works, Lady Susan as one of the minor works. Lady Susan was brilliant.
For historical fiction set in the time of JA I read Measuring the World by Daniel Kehlmann
For book by contemporary I read Faust I by Goethe.
For non-fiction about JA or her times I read Russia Against Napoleon by Dominic Lieven.

Hiya guys,
I actually did not manage to finish any books this JAJ... To be honest I set myself too much of a challenge this year - I was moving house in July to a new area. So had a lot on. But anyways I did start, and am still reading and enjoying, 'the other Bennet sister' by Janice Hadlow. I am loving this and will definitely finish it.

I hope you all had a grand Jane Austen July, and I look forward to taking part again with you all next year

I thoroughly enjoyed Jane Austen July. I read loads and watched lots of adaptations but I did not interact as much as I had hoped (although I did read a lot of comments).

This July i had less time to read but i mange to read P&P and Lady Susan. I also finished yestarday Evelina by Frances Burney. It was very interesting to read an epistolary book of the JA time. She took some inspirations in these kind of books.

I sadly didn't accomplish any of my Jane Austen July reading goals but with good reason. :) I spent 6 weeks of my summer with my family whom I haven't seen in 4 years, and we live very far apart; from one coast to the other. I am reading Pride and Prejudice and listening to Lady Susan; both rereads for me. I hope to finish my goals for Jane Austen July after finishing both of these novels. :)

I had a good Jane Austen July month and red the following books :
-The real Jane Austen a life in small things
- Pride and prejudice
- Northanger Abbey
- Lady Susan
- Jane Austen Juvenelia volume one
- Waverley
- unequal affections
- rewatched the lizzy Bennet Diary
I didn’t have any new Jane Austen adaptation so I skipped that challenge.
Overall I enjoyed my Jane Jane Austen July month